Board of Directors

Jill Ann Rahman

Jill Rahman has more than 20 years of progressive brand building and P&L leadership experience with blue chip brands at Kraft Foods, Newell Rubbermaid and currently Conagra Brands. She has extensive experience in building brand strategies, innovation and leading P&L’s for growth. In her current role as President of International for Conagra Brands, Jill leads a team of professionals in Canada, Mexico, India and Chicago across an $850 million portfolio. Her business responsibility is comprised of four business models: 1) local operations in Canada and Mexico, 2) global export, 3) joint venture partnerships in Mexico and Philipines, 4) an India affiliate. She sits on the boards of the joint ventures and the affiliate, Verde Valle (Mexico), Hunt’s Universal Robina Corp (Philippines) and Agro Tech Foods Limited (India). Prior to her role as President of International, Jill was Vice President/General Manager of the $1 billion Snacks portfolio at Conagra Brands. She led a cross-functional team to grow some of America’s favorite brands, including Orville Redenbacher’s Popcorn, Slim Jim Meat Snacks, Swiss Miss Cocoa and DAVID Seeds.

Jill received her undergraduate degree in Marketing from Howard University. After four years with the Kroger Company, Jill was awarded a full fellowship from the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management and earned her MBA from Indiana University with a concentration in Marketing.

Upon receiving her MBA, Jill started her brand management career at Kraft Foods. Leading the strategy and profit delivery on brands such as Kraft Salad Dressing, Stove Top Stuffing and Kraft Mayonnaise, Jill built 16 years of progressive experience at Kraft Foods. Jill left Kraft Foods in 2006 to join Newell Rubbermaid as the Vice President of North America for the Office Products Group. In this role, Jill led brands such as Sharpie, Paper Mate, Expo Dry Erase and Waterman Pens. In 2009, Jill accepted a newly created role as Vice President of Strategy for ConAgra Foods, Consumer Foods Division. In this role, Jill supported the President of Consumer Foods in the development of division strategies, investor facing presentations and the development of board presentations. One year later, Jill became Vice President/General Manager at ConAgra Foods within the Snacks portfolio where the snacks brands were among the fastest growing within the ConAgra Foods portfolio. Jill led this portfolio until her appointment to President of International in 2016.

Ms. Denise Lynn Dahl

A CPA from the State of Michigan and MBA in Integrative Management from the Michigan State University, Denise is an accomplished finance leader with extensive international experience managing complexity in challenging business environments. She has expertise in transforming financial business partnering, developing control processes and policies, negotiating complex contracts, establishing foreign subsidiaries and improving financial results. With exceptional interpersonal skills and proven ability to influence and motivate key stakeholders, Denise has been a strategic leader with experience in managing teams at corporate level as well as in seed and mature markets. Over the last 22 years, Denise has worked in some of the world’s leading companies like Herman Miller Inc. and Mead Johnson Nutrition Company and is currently employed with ConAgra Foods Inc. as Vice President, International Finance responsible for Company’s international finance organization, encompassing operations in over 50 countries.

Lt. Gen D B Singh

Lieutenant General D B Singh, PVSM, AVSM is a retired General Officer of the Indian Army. He was commissioned through the prestigious National Defence Academy and rose to virtually the senior-most rank in the Army.

A qualified engineer with management skills, Lt. Gen Singh has held multifarious assignment in the Indian Army. He is a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College and the National Defence College. He was awarded the prestigious awards of Param Vishisht Sewa Medal and Ati Vishisht Sewa Mandal by the President of India for exemplary service. After retirement from Defence Services on 31st May 2001, he was President of an engineering concern manufacturing EOT cranes and construction equipment for two and half years. The General is presently engaged in consultancy services on re-structuring services for logistics and engineering support.

Sanjaya Kulkarni

Sanjaya Kulkarni graduated with an Engineering Degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He than embarked upon a career in finance as a member of Citibank N.A.'s Merchant Banking department in 1973. After working in the Merchant Banking and Corporate Banking Division of Citibank in both New Delhi and Mumbai for 7 years, Sanjaya Kulkarni founded 20th Century Leasing Corporation along with a number of his colleagues. Sanjaya Kulkarni was responsible for setting up the merchant banking division of 20th Century Finance Corporation Limited in the early 1980's and had oversight of this department, which included public issue management and underwriting, private equity, venture capital and advisory services.

20th Century grew to be one of India's largest finance companies and had interests in Car Finance, Retail Finance, Mutual Funds and Commercial Banking. 20th Century had tie-ups with large Multinational like Zurich Insurance, GMAC, IFC Washington and Asian Development Bank.

20th Century set up 20th Century Venture Capital Limited in the early 90's, one of the first Venture Capital companies in India. Sanjaya Kulkarni was heading this company and was also responsible for Private Equity Investments made by 20th Century from their propritory funds. Sanjaya Kulkarni has hence been associated with the Venture Capital / Private Equity industry since the outset.

Sanjaya Kulkarni has been appointed to various committees of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, the Bombay Management Association and the Reserve Bank of India. Sanjaya Kulkarni has been Co-Chairman from 1989 to 1993 and then Chairman of the Equipment Leasing Association of India from 1993 to 1995. Sanjaya Kulkarni has over 29 years of experience in the Indian financial services sector.

Sanjaya Kulkarni is the founder and Managing Director of India Direct Equity Advisors ("IDEA"), the local advisor to the IEP India Direct Fund, L.P. He represents IDEA as Chairman of the IDF Investment Committee since inception. He is also the Chairman of the eTEC investment committee. Sanjaya Kulkarni co-manages, eTEC ventures and IDEA which have corpuses of approximately $60M.

Arun Bewoor

Arun Bewoor has been inducted into the Board as an Independent Director in the casual vacancy caused by the demise of Mr. Satish Lal Tandon. Mr. Bewoor is currently a Management Consultant and has retired as Vice President – India Region from International Flavours & Fragrances (IFF) which he held since 2001. Prior to this, he was Managing Director of Bush Boake Allen India which was subsequently taken over by IFF. He also held various honorary industry positions at different points in time as President - American Chamber of Commerce, Tamil Nadu, Madras Management Association, Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Chairman of different Committees at CII, Member-Advisory Council – IMA and Member of Dakshina Chitra.

Mr. Bewoor had graduated from the Pune University with a Honors Degree in Physics and Mathematics and attended several Management Development Programs at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Narendra Ambwani

Narendra is a member of the Boards of leading corporations and social organizations and supports them with his experience and technical mastery accumulated over 25 years in his leadership role at Johnson and Johnson Limited. He retired from Johnson and Johnson Limited as its Managing Director.

He was on the Board of Governors of the Advertising Standards Council of India, on the Executive Council of the Indian Society of Advertisers and Member – National and Western Region FMCG Committee of CII. He also served as a Member of the Jury of Tata Innovista 2010 and served on the Evaluation Committee of the Birla Sun Awards 2010.

Narendra holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from IIM – Ahmedabad.

Veena Gidwani

Veena Gidwani, a Management graduate with over 40 years experience in Marketing, Advertising & PR, is an independent Strategic PR Consultant, Corporate Trainer and Teacher at post-graduate communication Institutes. Her corporate training programmes cover Leadership Training for women managers, Media handling workshops for senior corporate spokespersons and PR for Brand Building for brand managers. Veena retired as CEO of Madison Public Relations, the specialist Reputation Management unit of Madison World, in 2012, after a successful 12 year tenure, in which she grew the agency’s client roster from one to an extensive list of blue-chip companies and brands; from a staff of four to a large team spread across four offices.

At Madison, she grew the business through innovative PR campaigns for MNC and Indian corporates & built a team of young, qualified & motivated professionals. Madison PR is recognized as a Brand PR specialist.

Veena has rich & varied experience at both agency & client ends. Since 1995, she was responsible for setting up & managing communications consultancies. Before joining Madison, Veena was President & CEO of Pressman Advertising’s PR business , which she set up and built. She also had a successful tenure as Director and CEO of the Creative agency of Tata Donnelly Ltd.

She, represented India as Jury for the PR category at the Cannes Festival of Creativity 2011 and is the recipient of the 'Indira Super Achievers Award' for Woman Achievers. She is Professor Emeritus at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication. She speaks at industry forums and Communication Conferences regularly.

Veena has served on several industry bodies in varied capacities including as President of PRCAI and PRSI Mumbai Chapter, Vice President , ISB Mumbai Chapter and on various committees of the Advertising Club. Her other interests include Indian music, playing bridge and cooking.

She is a Food Artist with PING Digital Broadcast and is featured on two channels ’IFN Sindhi’ and ’I’ve No Time To Cook’ on YouTube. Her first book The ’I’ve No Time To Cook’ Book targeted at busy working professionals has been very successful. Veena contributes regularly to newspapers and magazines & has appeared on food shows on leading TV channels.

Mr. Sachin Gopal

A graduate from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and MBA from the IIM, Ahmedabad, Sachin Gopal has an accomplished career over the last 25 years in some of the world's leading FMCG companies in India and abroad. He has a strong experience and is a pioneer in Sales, Marketing and Business of the FMCG sector.

He joined ATFL in April 2006 as COO, and took over the role of President and CEO from November 1, 2008. Prior his association with ATFL, Sachin was handling the role of Director-Customer Business Development with Procter & Gamble. Prior to this, he had a long career with Gillette India from 1987 to 2005 and handled significant Sales, Marketing and Business roles such as Group Product Manager, Vice President Marketing and General Sales Director. In his overseas assignments, Sachin has handled the roles of Marketing Manager for Gillette Egypt; Group Business Director - Batteries, Duracell Eveready South Africa Pty., Johannesburg S.A and Group Business Manager - Batteries, Gillette Group H.Q. London, U.K.

Sachin had started his career with Escorts Ltd., where he worked as Senior Marketing officer. He also spent three years with Cadbury where he worked as Product Manager and Regional Sales Manager.